How to dehydrate papaya?

June 5, 2008 4:37 PM

How do you dehydrate/prepare to dehydrate fresh papaya?

I have access to a nice commercial dehydrator and tons of fresh delicious papaya. When you just put plain papaya pieces in it, though, they get leathery and turn darker orange. The stuff you see in stores is sugary and tender and holds its shape. Obviously there must be a candying, sulfuring, blanching, something preparation going on. Does anyone have any good recipes/methods for drying/candying like this, preferably with little use of nasty chemicals?

posted by dahliachewswell to Food & Drink (2 answers total)

For most fruit, you can puree it in a blender and thin it with a little water if necessary and add sugar or herbs or whatever flavorings you might like, then spread it out in a single layer on a dehydrator sheet and then cut it into squares when it has dehydrated. It makes a nice, uniform fruit roll-up sort of thing. Haven't tried it with papayas, but no reason it shouldn't work.
posted by judith at 10:49 PM on June 5, 2008

There was an episode of Good Eats where Alton made a cheap and presumably effective fruit dehydrator out of a household fan and air conditioning filters. I couldnt find the episode on YouTube (and dont really have time at work for a lengthy search) but perhaps someone with more GoogleFu than I could track it down.
posted by elendil71 at 8:03 AM on June 6, 2008